Is low back pain and muscle tightness keeping you from enjoying the things you love to do, living the life you want to live?
Is back pain affecting your sleep, your energy, your ability to work?
Our Treatment Approach for Low Back Pain
Our Edmonton acupuncture clinic uses an integrated approach to treat low back pain that creates a lasting improvement and not just short-term relief. The way we do acupuncture focuses first on resetting and improving the function of the core muscles and sinews. Acupuncture not only decreases pain, it allows our patients to effectively return to exercise and adopt normal posture and movement patterns that are the foundation of rehabilitation.
BOOK ONLINE
Low back pain is one of the most common causes of missed work days. It can interfere quite dramatically with quality of life and the ability to go about the regular things in your day. If you are experiencing back pain that is affecting your quality of life, you have come to the right place! It is one of the conditions that we treat most frequently at our clinic and with good success.
Acute and Chronic Low Back Pain
Back pain commonly arises from muscle strain or injury in the lumbar or sacrum region of the spine. Most episodes of low back pain last a short period of time, a few weeks to a month. Most acute back pain usually goes away without causing any lasting problems. Chronic low back pain persists over 3 months and comes and goes over time.
Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome
Sciatica is a common type of pain that arises from an impingement or irritation of nerves off the lower back that join to form the sciatic nerve. Piriformis syndrome is a particular type of sciatica where the piriformis muscle in the gluteal region clamps down on the sciatic nerve itself. Sciatic pain, almost always on one leg or the other, can be an aching or shooting pain down the leg, numbness, or burning sensations. These sensations can radiate from the lower back, through the buttock, and down the back or side of either leg, sometimes all the way to the foot. Although acupuncture can address leg pain directly, most of the focus of our treatments is indirect by addressing the low back issues where the sciatica pain originates from.
Read details about our approach in treatment
Research Says Acupuncture works for Low Back Pain
Acupuncture can treat both acute and chronic low back pain. A growing body of research since the 1990s has shown that acupuncture is effective in treating low back pain. According to a summary of acupuncture research studies described on the website of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health there is strong evidence that acupuncture can be used to help relieve low back pain with lasting results.
Read NCCIH’s Research Literature Summary
How Many Sessions Do I Need
The number of acupuncture sessions needed to see improvement and lasting freedom from pain varies with the individual. Acupuncture works cumulatively, that is, each session builds on the previous one. Generally speaking, a minimum of three treatments is needed in order to create a positive momentum of core stability and function for the back. Acute pain and recent injuries tend to respond more quickly to treatment, whereas chronic pain conditions that have been persistent for months or years typically take longer.
